Art and theater reviews covering Seattle to Olympia, Washington, with other art, literature and personal commentary.
If you want to ask a question about any of the shows reviewed here please email the producing venue (theater or gallery) or email me at alec@alecclayton.com. If you post questions in the comment section the answer might get lost.

I must return
to Tacoma Art Museum at least one more time to slowly peruse the Art AIDS
America exhibition, which is likely the most affecting exhibition ever mounted
at TAM and the most thorough exhibition on the AIDS epidemic ever mounted
anywhere in America. There is simply too much to take in on a single visit.
Plus there are many planned discussions, workshops and other events in
conjunction with the show, including an artist talk and performance by
notorious performance artist Karen Finley and a rare opportunity to talk with
members of the artist collective Gran Fury.

One of the
first things to strike my eye upon entering the first gallery was a little
photo by Peter Hujar of his bedroom, “Ruined Bed, Newark.” Hujar was closely
associated with Andy Warhol and famous for his book Portraits in Life and Death, featuring portraits of Susan Sontag,
Candy Darling, Devine, and his lover, David Wojnarowicz. This photo is
gripping, dark, moody, and beautifully composed. Hujar and Wojnarowicz both
died of AIDS-related related illnesses.

Similar to
Hujar’s photo but even more disquieting is Shimon Attie’s photo of a bed with
the ghostly projected image of Axel H., a friend of the artist who also died of
AIDS.

David Lebe’s
photograph, “Morning Ritual 29,” isa self-portrait of the artist injecting his morning
medicine. It is gut-wrenching.

Easily overlooked but powerful is Charles LeDray’s untitled teddy bear
in a casket. LeDray, who was born in Seattle, made many of these little boxes
with padded interiors and teddy bears representing people who died of AIDS. It
is much more moving than can possibly be conveyed in words.

Izhar Patkin’s
“Unveiling of a Modern Chastity, 1981” is a large yellow panel with huge,
gaping eruptions like Kaposi sarcoma lesions. It is breathtaking.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

At Local Authors Day at the Puyallup
Book Festival people kept asking me what kind of books I write. God, I hate
that question! Even though, if the table were turned, that’s exactly what I
would ask. As a matter of fact, I did ask that of a lot of the other authors
who were tabling. They wrote Sci-fi, horror, political intrigue, and so forth.
One of them wrote Jane Austin Fan Fiction. I guess that’s a genre now.

The thing is, if you say you write
sci-fi or mysteries everybody knows what kind of books you write.

I write literary fiction, and nobody
knows what the hell that is. Hell fire, even the people who write it don’t know
what the hell that is.

Marketing experts say that if you want
to sell your work you need to be able to say in a few words just what it is you’re
trying to sell. You’ve got to be able to give a synopsis as an elevator speech.
I’m not very good at that. Sometimes I say I write contemporary fiction,
sometimes family sagas. Yesterday I told someone I write situational fiction. I
also sometimes try giving examples of other writers who write similar types of
books. The writer I refer to most often is Pat Conroy. We tell similar types of
stories in similar styles. I was very flattered when reviewer Linda Linguvic
wrote, “Move over Pat Conroy. There’s a new Southern writer in town” and
followed up with, “Frankly, I loved this book and
actually found it better than Pat Conroy's latest.” Thank you, Linda.
(Interestingly, she had no interest in reviewing any of my later books; oh
well, you can’t please all of the people all of the time.)

Another writer whose books might serve
as a good example of the kind of books I write is Richard Russo. I aspire to
his level of comic writing, but I’m not all about comedy by any means. I write
about love and death and sexual harassment and racism. It’s deadly serious, but
I do try to inject a dose of humor as well.

In addition to Conroy, reviewers have
compared me to Eudora Welty, William Faulkner and Carl Hiaasen, and my books
have been called Southern Gothic. I think those reviewers were really reaching
to find some way to define my work; really, the only thing those writers have
in common is that they are Southerners (although Hiaasen’s Miami is more New
York/Cuban than Southern).

When it comes down to it, I guess what I
should tell people when they ask what kind of books I write is that I’m just a
story teller. Old timers sit around and tell tales about when they were young,
about all the crazy characters they met or were. That’s what I do; I just tell
tales.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

I went to see [title of show] (brackets and lower case
letters intentional) thinking it was the dumbest play title I had ever heard
but also with the expectation, based on what little I had heard about it, that
it was probably going to be pretty good. It was, much, much better than pretty
good. It was fantastic —smartly written and a top-notch performance by an
outstanding ensemble cast.

The only cast member I knew
going in was Daya Ozburn. The director, Jen Tidwell, and three of the four
actors are new to Tacoma, and they all have impressive resumes and come to
Tacoma Actors Repertory Theater from mostly Seattle theaters. Let’s hope they
become regulars down here.

Jeff (Joel Dominico) and Hunter
(Zach Sanders) are actors who are not exactly winning the best roles in the
world. Or any roles at all for that matter. So Jeff decides on a whim to write
a musical he and his friends can perform, and he wants to enter it in a play
festival. They recruit Susan (Ozburn) and Heidi (Amanda Norman) to help write
and perform in his musical, which he titles [title
of show] because that’s what the blank on the festival competition asks
for. That’s a clue right off the bat that it’s either going to be a brilliant
parody or the dumbest play ever. In another stroke of genius (or stupidity?) he
decides that the way to write it is simply to write down everything he and his
friends say, and put it to music. For musical accompaniment they recruit their
friend Larry (Gregory Smith).

To everybody’s surprise, the
play gets accepted into the festival and is such a hit that they get a producer
and open Off-Broadway to great success. Any further commentary on the plot
would constitute a spoiler.

It is a brilliantly written
comedy and a fun insider’s look at the world of struggling actors — and playwrights,
directors, and even keyboardists (representative of all the key
behind-the-scenes folks who are rarely applauded. And it is an insightful look
into the hearts of people who yearn to succeed in show business, their
insecurities and their dreams.

The musical is performed with
minimal sets consisting primarily of four chairs and Larry’s keyboard in the
background. The music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen are upbeat, toe-tapping,
feel-good tunes performed with gusto by the entire cast. The acting by all four
is outstanding as they are each outlandishly expressive, and each in extremely
personal ways. It is as if these four actors have taken almost stereotypical
types and brought them to life as strong individuals.

There is also dancing that is
hard to describe. All I can say about it is that it is not what you think of as
dancing, but often odd movements that are fun to watch, including a bit where
Ozburn plays airplane while the others push her around on a rolling chair and a
surprising moment when Norman does absolutely wild when she thinks the guys
aren’t watching (choreography by Kendra Pierce).

[title of show] is contemporary
musical theater that proves you don’t need big Broadway-type sets and full
orchestras and lavish production numbers to bring the house down. It’s small
scale, intimate, and as enjoyable as anything you might see this year.

Tacoma Actors Repertory Theater
is a brand new theatrical group. They opened their first season (hopefully the
first of many) with the critically and popularly successful Three Viewings. For
the holidays, they will present Dickens' A
Christmas Carol, performed
by guest artist Byron Tidwell as a one-man show. Itwill run in repertory with the comedy The
Farndale Avenue Housing Estate’s Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s
Production of a Christmas Carol by David McGillivray
and Walter Zerlin, Jr. That’s a mouth full, and the title alone makes me want
to see it.

I can’t recommend [title of show] highly enough. Tacomans
should welcome TARP with open arms and standing ovations.

Michael Dickter comes soaring into Olympia’s
Salon Refu with a show of paintings of birds and flowers, subject matter that
is often snubbed with various “nesses” such as sweetness and preciousness. But
there is little of the saccharine in Dickter’s birds and flowers. The subject
matter of his paintings is almost totally irrelevant. They could be paintings
of rocks or weeds or frogs, or of nothing recognizable at all, and they would
still carry the same impact. Because his paintings are all about the marks, the
drips, the texture, and the arrangement of images on a flat surface. These are
abstract paintings that happen to picture birds, flowers, a couple of boats and
some very odd flying chairs. The subject matter is subservient to the painting
but adds an extra layer of meaning.

Imagine Cy Twombly if he painted recognizable
subjects or even Eva Hesse if she was a painter rather than a sculptor. I admit
that comparisons with Hesse may be going too far, but there is that feeling to
much of Dicker’s work, or could be if his birds were not so Audubon-like.

One thing I find fascinating about this show is
the comparisons between the older paintings (around 2005) and the latest (done
this year).

The newest works are represented with a group of
14 small, square paintings of birds strategically placed on backgrounds that
are all texture with no imagery, created by an application of some plaster-like
material and paint in a combination of gray that is so light as to be seen as
white and a dull olive green. This surface looks like old weathered stone or
the sides of whitewashed barns. The birds are drawn and painted with delicate
and expressive lines, drips of paint and fine color accents. The contrast
between sharp marks and dull surface and the often out-of-balance and oddly
placed images of birds is fascinating.

Also among these newer works are two works on
paper with birds arranged in a grid that are quite attractive. My favorite of
these is an oil and pastel drawing called “9 Black Birds” with intense, deep
black smudging into soft grays, and small accents of intense color that drip downward
in watery blue, orange, red and gray.

The older works include “History of Flight,” a
large pastel of a man with black wings, intense and smudged like the black
pastel in “9 Black Birds,” two boats seemingly floating in air and a boxy chair
with seats facing in two directions that also seems to be flying. And there is
a ghostlike reflection of the winged man, who is probably intended as Icarus.
This painting has a dreamy quality and amazing mark-making and contrasts of
dull and intense color.

“Fear of Flying” is a similar work with the same
images plus a set of blue footprints that march from the bottom to the top of
the 80-inch- tall drawing, fading as they ascend. I’m reasonably sure this was done by stepping in paint and walking
across the paper. These two are by far my favorite works in the show, precisely
because they are not as highly finished as the later works. His earlier works
are more concerned with drawing than painting, and there is more complexity to
the images. They’re risky, with a gutsy flavor that is lost in more recent
works like the group of 14 bird paintings.

I get the impression that Dickter is a
wonderfully talented painter whose sensitivity to space, texture and color is
second to none, but who has become a bit too concerned with pleasing the
public.

Monday, October 19, 2015

B2 Gallery is
jam-packed with art for its fall pop-up show. Pop-ups? What are they anyway?
It’s a new thing instituted at B2 this summer where between the main or regular
shows they have exhibitions that are up for a shorter duration and sometimes
with art that is priced more reasonably. They’re like the B-team, even though
artists such as Becky Frehse are definitely A-team all the way. Some of the
others may be seen a B-team artists who are ready to step up to the A-team —such as sculptor Alan Newberg.

Newberg’s
massive carved-wood sculptures are sensuous. His “God of Black Holes: Up Looks
Down” is a huge, dark abstract bird shape that dominates the front room of the
gallery. His “Natural Urges” is a soaring form atop a polished-metal pyramid base that blends smooth, carved shapes
with convoluted forms of wood in its natural state. These are outstanding. He
is also showing a number of paintings in a pop-art style based on images from
the book Weegee's New York: Photographers
1935-1960. These paintings harken back to early American works by artists such as Guy
Pène du Bois and George Luks. They’re a bit too crudely painted with garish red
frames.

Anna Hoey’s oil
paintings of people wearing masks are fierce and beautifully rendered. One of
the more fascinating aspects to these paintings is that the faces of the mask
wearers can be partially seen beneath the masks, and these faces are youthful,
soft and gentle in marked contrast to the masks. I counted thirteen of these
pictures, including a drawing in graphite and
colored pencil called “Breaking Barriers” picturing a nude somewhat awkwardly
seated within an oval mirror with a rope frame, all in black and white except
for two thin red lines and the woman’s bright red lips. This one is beautifully
composed.

Frehse, the only well-known Tacoma artist in the show, has three large paintings
in the center gallery. They
are abstract-expressionist depictions of musicality using primarily rhythmicalrepetition
of shapes to represent music. The only recognizable objects are drums, cymbals
and triangles in a painting called “Ensemble.” These are great paintingsI so wish B2 would feature more of her work.

Some of the
most impressive work in the show can be seen in a group of four Brian Fisher
monotypes anda similar group of rust
monotypes also by Fisher, some with gold leaf, on the theme of the Greek legend
of Jason and the Argonauts. All of these combine strong, graphic linear
elements laid on top of or intertwined with flat shapes of solid color
representing men and boats. These works are minimalist and dramatic. They
remind me a lot of Michael Spafford’s powerful paintings of similar themes, but
they are more decorative and delicate.

I was told that
Fisher was a student of Ilse Reimnitz, who is represented in this show withstylistically similar monoprints and
acrylics of flowers and figures. Her influence on Fisher is clear, but based on
these few works I venture to say the pupil has eclipsed the teacher. I do
admire her use of multiple overlapping transparencies and soft colors.

Also
showingare seascape paintings by Karla
Fowler; realistic but bland paintings of birds
and other animals by Bill O. Walcott (the best being a picture of a bunch of
chickens); and overly cluttered fauvist city
scenes with strange animals by Bethany Woodward.

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About Me

I am an artist and writer living in Olympia, Washington. I write an art review column, a theater review column and arts features for the Weekly Volcano, a community theater review column for The (Tacoma) News Tribune and regular arts features for OLY ARTS (Olympia).
My published novels are: This Is Me, Debbi, David; Tupelo; The Freedom Trilogy (a three-book series consisting of The Backside of Nowhere, Return to Freedom and Visual Liberties); Reunion at the Wetside; The Wives of Marty Winters; Imprudent Zeal and Until the Dawn. I've also published a book on art, As If Art Matters. All are available on amazon.com.
I grew up in Tupelo and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and have been living in the Pacific Northwest since 1988 where I am active in many progressive organizations such as PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).